


Brain Static

by phoenixreal, SapphireTou



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: FWUCollections, Gratsu Week 2018, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-14 03:12:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15379416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixreal/pseuds/phoenixreal, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SapphireTou/pseuds/SapphireTou
Summary: Natsu starts acting weird, and everyone knows something's wrong. Could it have to do with the mage that bit him on a mission?





	Brain Static

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know if I like this. Depending on reception, it might have more, we'll see.

* * *

 

It was the fact that he _bit_ Natsu that was so hard to believe.

It hadn’t even been that serious of a mission. But on it they encountered a mage that was acting strange. He was just not acting right. Natsu was just standing beside him when he grabbed him by the arm and just bit him. It was hard enough to break the skin, and left Natsu bleeding. Then the mage just wandered off again as though nothing had happened. By the time the shock wore off everyone, the mage was long gone, and Natsu was left wondering just what exactly had just happened.

Lucy bandaged his arm and they went back to Fairy Tail without another thought. It was weird and all, but what could getting bit by a mage do to someone like Natsu?

“So, you got injured?” Gajeel chided as Natsu sat at the table with the others once they were back at the Fairy Tail building.

“Not on the mission, but some guy bit me,” he said as he rubbed the bandaged place on his arm. It had quit bleeding.

“That’s weird.” Levy sat down beside him, looking over at Natsu with a bit of concern on her face.

Natsu didn’t think much of it. In fact, by the time the wound healed, he didn’t think of it at all.

“Do you guys hear that?” Natsu asked as they stood by the bar. Erza and Lucy were standing there talking about something while Gray sipped a drink.

“Hear what?” Lucy asked, tilting her head to the side.

Natsu shook his head. “Nothing, I guess,” he muttered and drank from his cup.

Gray looked at him suspiciously. “What are you hearing?”

“Just thought I heard something,” Natsu told him, shaking his head. “Guess it was nothing.”

A week passed from that day and Natsu began having dreams. The first dream was surreal. He was standing on a precipice looking over Fairy Tail. He then jumped off of it and was flying. He had wings, he realized, and he was soaring over the building. He could see Gray standing below him and he was excited because he wanted Gray to see what he was doing. But Gray wasn’t looking, and Natsu got angry because he wasn’t paying attention. He grew more frustrated and tried to fly closer to him, only to be pushed further away.

He woke up with a start, panting and exhausted. Happy looked at him strangely, and asked if he was alright, but he didn’t know what was happening.

“Just a weird dream,” he said and shook it away.

In the middle of a mission, Natsu got lost. It was weird for him to get lost so easily, especially since the area was well known by all of them. Gray found him standing alone just staring into space. He was unresponsive for a minute when Gray tried to talk to him, then whatever was wrong seemed to stop, and he was fine again.

“Just a bit disorientated,” he said and shook it away.

The next dream was frightening to Natsu. It was more than the other dreams of flying and Gray ignoring him. This time he was more of a dragon, with wings, claws, and teeth. He was ripping apart a human and he looked down to see it wasn’t someone he knew. He heard someone calling to him and he tried to answer them, but only a roar came out. He was not bothered by the blood on his hands as he tore apart the person below him. He looked up to see Gray standing there staring at him. He nearly screamed this time when he woke up, covered in a sheen of sweat. Happy asked if he was okay.

“Just a nightmare,” he said and shook it away.

The noise was becoming a problem. Natsu was sure that someone had to hear the awful sound besides him. There had to be something wrong with them if they couldn’t hear it. It never went away and sounded like fuzz to his ears. It was steadily growing in volume and he couldn’t make it stop no matter how he tried. It haunted his dreams and took over his days. He even had to start listening more carefully because it was growing so loud to him. Lucy asked him if he was okay.

“Just thought I’d heard something,” he said and shook it away.

Another dream began to haunt him. He watched as he stood stuck fast to the ground. Gray was there, but he turned and walked away from him. He tried to call out, but again, no words could be found, only a roaring sound would come from his lips, that sounded a bit like the roaring sound in his ears. He wasn’t sure when that fuzzy noise had become so loud. Happy worried over him, not sure what to do. This time Natsu didn’t say anything at all when Happy asked if he was okay. This time, he couldn’t shake it away.

-O-

“Is it just me, or has Natsu been acting strange lately?” Gray asked with a frown as he sat at the bar with Lucy and Erza.

“Yeah, come to think of it, he has been really distant lately,” Lucy said as she looked him over.

“What do you think is going on?” Gray inquired.

“He hasn’t been around today,” Erza noted as she looked around. “Actually, it’s kind of quiet around here today overall.”

Gray looked up to see that Natsu and Happy had come in. But something was wrong. Natsu looked distant and Happy looked agitated.

“Natsu, let’s go home,” Happy was saying.

Everyone had turned to see what was happening but Natsu wasn’t seemingly aware of anything that was going on. Lucy got up and went to see what he was doing, but as soon as she got close to him, he growled at her. She stepped back, seeing his eyes were unfocused.

“Natsu?” she queried hopefully.

He then turned and walked back out of the building. Happy started to follow him, but then looked back at Lucy.

“Something’s wrong with him,” Happy said and zipped after him.

Gray got up and went to stand beside Lucy as he watched Natsu walk into the distance. It looked like he was headed out of town. Gray turned to Lucy and arched a brow.

“Something’s up,” he told her and turned back to find Makarov standing behind them.

“You should go with him and find out what is happening. It could be nothing, but it is best to keep an eye on him. We don’t need something to happen to him with his power,” the guildmaster said and turned to go back in the building.

Gray, Erza, and Lucy together headed out to follow Natsu and find out what was wrong with him. Gray wasn’t sure what exactly was going on but Natsu was headed out toward Porlyusica’s place. they followed him and Happy until they came out into the forest. Natsu stopped suddenly and turned on them, raising a hand and a blast of fire shot out as he growled low in his throat. Lucy ducked, narrowly avoiding the blast as she looked at him.

“Natsu!” she gasped.

The eyes that looked back at her didn’t see her, though. They were wide and wild and there was no recognition in them. Flames licked at his hands as he turned to run away from them into the forest.

“After him!” Erza said and took of with Gray right on her heels. Lucy collected herself and chased after them as quickly as she could.

They chased him through the forest for almost ten minutes before he came out and tried to attack them again, forcing Gray to use his ice to counter his burst of flame.

“Natsu!” he yelled, and he stopped, staring at him for a minute. “Stop this!”

Natsu acted like he wanted to listen for a split second before he ran back into the depths of the forest again. Again, they ran after him, easily following the trail he left behind. He wasn’t trying to hide himself, he was just trying to get as far away from them as he could. Gray had no idea why he would be trying to put distance between them, but something was desperately wrong with the dragon slayer.

-o-

Natsu felt like he was drowning in a world of sound that he didn’t understand. He couldn’t hear; he couldn’t feel anything, as whatever the noise was droned on in his ears and he felt himself let go of control. In fact, all he could feel was an intense need to get away. A need to put space between him and anyone he might hurt.

He saw the dreams before his waking eyes and couldn’t stop the images from assaulting him from the dreams. He kept seeing his friends turning away from him and then he was running from them. Why was he running? He didn’t know for sure what was happening. He was seeing things and hearing things that weren’t there, and he knew it at the same time as he fought with his brain about it. The noise was deafening, and he might as well have lost his hearing.

He ran out of the trees and stumbled into a clear area around a house that he felt he should recognize. The world warped around him, though and he felt his body shaking. Whatever was happening was taking a toll on him, though, because he was growing tired. He stumbled back into the forest and walked for a while, waiting to hear anything besides the horrible noise in his head. He sat down and suddenly he was trapped. He could see Gray again, outside the place where he was at, but he was walking away from him again. There were walls closing in around him and he couldn’t get away from them. He gasped out and started digging at the walls. They weren’t going to trap him! Then the world seemed to implode and he was falling.

-o-

Gray led them as they followed the trail. He had no idea what was going on with Natsu, but he was frightened. He had lost sight of him, but he hadn’t had to deal with him throwing fire at them as well. Happy hung back with Lucy and kept looking behind them.

“What could have happened to him?” Lucy asked again and Gray was starting to get irritated with the question. If they knew, they wouldn’t be chasing him around the forests outside Magnolia.

“Hey, this is Porlyusica’s house,” Erza said as they came out of the forest into a clearing. They had been following a trail where it looked like Natsu had come through. Outside the house, they saw the medicinal mage sweeping her stoop. She looked up when they came out into her.

“About time you showed up.” She huffed at them and turned to go inside.

“What?” Gray asked as he ran up to her. He’d lost his shirt at some point.

The three mages and Happy followed Porlyusica into her house and she led them to a bedroom. Gray saw that she had Natsu tied to the bed, and his hands bandaged. He gasped and looked at her. “How did you get him to listen to you? We’ve been chasing him all over the forest.”

Porlyusica sighed and shook her head. “He finally exhausted himself and passed out. You should keep a better eye on sick people.”

“Sick?” Lucy asked as Happy sat on her shoulder. “Natsu was sick?”

“This is why I hate humans,” Porlyusica grumbled. “He has perhaps the worst case of Brain Static I’ve ever seen. How it could have gone this long, I have no idea. The boy should have been barely functional.”

“Brain Static?” Gray repeated. “I’ve never heard of it.”

“You not hearing about it doesn’t make it any less real,” she answered and checked over the bandages on his hands. “It’s rare and transmitted with bodily fluids. Anything happen where he could have gotten blood on him or something?”

Gray was quiet for a moment. “Wait, there was that day this strange mage bit him. Could that have been when he contracted it?”

“Strange mage? He was probably infected. I’ve given Natsu the remedy but there’s permanent damage done. He’s going to suffer some of the effects from now on,” she said with a sigh.

“What kind of effects?” Gray asked, not wanting to chase Natsu all over the place like this every time he turned around.

Porlyusica glared at him. “Tremors, hallucinations, trouble with his sleep, nightmares, speech problems, any of the symptoms of the virus.”

“So, he’s had this since that mage bit him? How has he suffered with something for so long and not told us? Why would he keep it a secret?” Erza said as she looked at Natsu, face slack in sleep. “What happened to his hands?”

“He was digging into an old log with his hands when I found him. He ripped some of his nails out. The hallucinations this virus causes are intense and very real to those that are having them. I’m surprised no one noticed that he was going through this.”

“He kept it to himself,” Gray said as he looked on him. “He didn’t tell us anything was wrong, and he only recently started acting out of character.”

“Well, when he wakes up, as long as he’s lucid, you can take him back home. I recommend rest for at least a week. So, no missions for that long at least.” Porlyusica placed a sheet over Natsu and looked at the others. “Wait outside.”

Gray and the others went outside at her instruction to leave her inside with Natsu.

“Why don’t you two take Happy back to the hall and I’ll wait here for Natsu?” Gray told Erza and Lucy. “Happy, you can stay with Lucy tonight and I’ll take Natsu back to your house. I’ll come get you if he wants you to come back home though.”

“Are you sure you want to stay by yourself?” Erza asked with concern.

“I’ll be fine. If Porlyusica says she’s given him the remedy, I doubt he try to blow me up or something on the way back. I can handle him even if there is a problem,” he said with a smile.

“Alright, we’ll go tell Makarov what she’s said. He’ll want to know right away,” Lucy nodded as she motioned to Happy to follow them.

Gray found a spot to sit down and wait until he was told he was awake. He was worried on Natsu and he wasn’t sure how to express it. He would have lasting effects of this strange thing he’d caught. Obviously, the hallucinations were real to him the way he attacked them earlier. He had a hard time thinking of Natsu as having any sort of long term ill effects of any sort.

“He’s awake,” Gray heard from the door. “I haven’t let him up yet, so come in and talk to him. We want to make sure he’d able to walk on his own.” Porlyusica beaconed him back into the house.

Gray followed her inside and saw that Natsu was looking around and pulling on the binding that held him down. “Wh-what’s happening?” he stammered, sounding slurred.

“You’re sick, Natsu,” Gray told him as he came in.

Porlyusica went over and began to untie him. She was apparently satisfied that he was lucid enough to get up from the bed. He rubbed his hands and winced at the pain in his hands. “You caught something called Brain Static. Messed with your head. Now, go home. You can leave now. I already told Gray everything.” She made a shooing motion with her hands at both of them.

Natsu stood up and wobbled a little. Gray got up and put an arm around him to steady him. “Here, I’ll take you home. You need to rest for a week she said,” he explained as he led Natsu out of the house.

Natsu nodded and walked with Gray, not arguing with him at all over being helped. Gray knew he must have felt bad if he wasn’t arguing over Gray walking him like this. “Do you remember anything?” Gray asked him.

Natsu shook his head as they came outside again. “It’s all foggy. I remember the noise and being scared of something and needing to run away.”

“Well, you did that. We’ve been chasing you all over this forest since morning,” he said as he looked at the sun that was setting low in the sky. “You’re going to have to lead me to your house from here.”

The rest of the way to Natsu’s house was quiet as Natsu concentrated on walking, and Gray made sure he didn’t fall. He was leaning against the ice mage heavily, and Gray knew he must have been incredibly drained to be so heavy against him. He got him to his and Happy’s house.

“Can you stay for a little while?” Natsu asked as he opened the door.

Gray nodded. “Shouldn’t I go tell Happy you’re home?”

“I’d rather he not stay here tonight. In case I do something to hurt him. I remember attacking you all in the forest. I don’t want anything to happen to him,” Natsu explained as they came into his house.

Gray nodded and Natsu managed to get in his bed. Gray sat down nearby and Natsu was asleep before another ten minutes had passed by.

Gray had fallen asleep leaning against the bed when he heard Natsu mumbling. He stood up and shook Natsu awake. He came awake with a start, eyes wide and staring. He stared at Gray for a minute then whispered, “You won’t go away?”

“Of course not, Natsu,” Gray said, smiling softly at him. “I told you I’d be here.”

“In my dreams, you’re always turning away and leaving me,” Natsu whispered hoarsely and Gray had to wonder how awake he was. “And I can’t stop you.”

Gray leaned down and brushed his pink hair out of his face, damp with sweat from his nightmare. “I’m here for you, Natsu,” he said.

Natsu shut his eyes again, and Gray wondered if he would even remember waking up during the night tomorrow. He swallowed and thought of the panic he felt when Natsu had been out of his mind. How could he have kept something as big as being that sick a secret from them all? He wondered exactly why he didn’t tell them. Did he not trust them after all?

-O-

The dream was terrifying. He was running away from his friends, but they kept getting closer. He wanted to get away and at the same time he was scared of losing them. He didn’t know what to do. The world would close in and he would be caught. Frozen in place, he would watch as they one by one approached him and turned away.

Gray was last, like always. Gray, who he didn’t want to hurt with his magic. Gray, who mattered more than Natsu wanted to admit. He wanted to tell Gray the truth. He wanted to let him know why he didn’t want him to leave, but he couldn’t make the words come into existence. They were just not there. The droning sound of the static pushed any words away. Now he knew what it was called, and naming it was something that he hoped would give him control over it. It didn’t, though. Instead, he was even more confined by it.

There was a reason Gray had filled his dreams and mind lately, and he didn’t know how to relay that reason to the real person. In his nightmares, Gray turned away from him. Gray didn’t care what he had to say, and sometimes, he would laugh at him. He was at a loss as he felt the world melt around him and he was left staring at Gray.

“Gray, no!” he yelled as he started to fall away from him. He had to hold on! He had to try and convey what was inside his chest before he exploded from the want of it all. He couldn’t stop anything from happening, and the sound was crushing his mind.

“Natsu!” he heard and blinked. He was in his bed, with Gray there. He panted and sat up, putting hands over his face. Gray was kneeling beside the bed, looking concerned.

He licked his lips dryly and looked at Gray. Could he tell him the truth? Could he tell him the reason his nightmares were so terrible?

Gray reached out, brushing his hair back from his forehead. He was damp with sweat and starting to get cold all of a sudden, buy maybe it was because of Gray being close to him. He couldn’t stop the sudden tears that sprung to his eyes. He saw Gray’s face turn shocked at the sight.

“I can’t…I’m not… I don’t know what to do, Gray!” he stammered.

“Natsu, what is it? I told you, I’m here for you,” Gray told him gently, still brushing his hand along his hairline.

“You don’t understand what I see,” Natsu whispered after a moment. “What terrifies me the most.”

“Then tell me?” Gray asked, looking at him with a serious face.

“You. Always you.” Natsu had said it. Finally. He breathed out a deep sigh and felt somewhat better for it.

“I don’t understand,” Gray frowned, looking at him in obvious confusion.

“My dreams, what I see, the worst is when you turn away from me, and I can’t reach you anymore. I don’t understand myself, but it hurts more than anything else,” Natsu explained quietly, staring at his hands where they clutched the sheets.

Gray didn’t say anything for a couple minutes. Then he sighed. “You’re such an idiot sometimes, Natsu. I’m not going to leave you.”

“What I feel, though, it is so much more than I thought,” Natsu whispered and looked at Gray with wide, still teary eyes.

“It takes you nearly dying from some mysterious virus to get you to say something?” Gray asked him, taking one of his slack hands into his own.

Natsu nodded. “I’m no good with explaining my feelings.”

“I suppose I’m not either,” Gray said and squeezed Natsu’s hand. “But I know that I was worried about you more than ever and I can’t stand the thought of something happening to you. So, I guess you could say the feeling is mutual.”

“Wh-what do we do now?” Natsu wondered, somewhat to himself, somewhat to Gray.

“Well, over the next week, I’ll stay with you. Then we can go from there,” Gray told him.

Natsu was quiet a moment. “So what does…” he started but Gray cut him off by moving his face closer to him, nearly touching lips with lips. Their eyes connected and Natsu stopped breathing for a second. “Oh,” he breathed out finally. Gray smirked and leaned in the rest of the way, allowing their lips to meet for the first time.


End file.
